Cross Country Teams Qualify for D3 State Finals
Photo provided by Valerie Rochow
The Stockbridge boys and girls cross country team both earned trips to the Division 3 state finals with second-place finishes at the Regional at Willow Metropark Saturday.
The boys finished with 49 points. Just three points behind champion Monroe St Mary’s and ahead of Clinton with 74.
Dalton Satkowiak was the individual regional champion with a time of 16:59.
Micah Bolton was seventh in 17:45, Ben Chapman eighth in 17:47, and Collin Cook ninth in 17:48. Jonah Coffman was 27th in 18:23, Andy Schlaff 31st in 18:31, and Brock Jones 34th in 18:35.
It is the first time the Panthers have qualified as a team since 2017.
Shortly after winning the girls individual state title last year, Rylee Tolson talked about getting the Stockbridge team to the final in 2020 and Saturday, Tolson and the Panthers did just that as they finished second at the D3 Regional.
The Panthers finished with 41 points, behind Clinton with 31. Manchester also qualified in third with 69 points.
Tolson repeated as Regional champion in 18:07, over two minutes faster then the second place runner from Clinton.
Brianna Hill was 5th in 20:57 and Brooklyn Rochow who returned after missing a couple of races and finished seventh in 21:12.
Julianna Debozy was 14th in 21:50, Kaitelyn Walker 16th in 22:14, Joy Youngblood 47th in 25:19, and Peyton Killinger 50th in 25:45.
The teams will run at Michigan International Speedway Saturday with the boys running at 10:00 and the girls at 11:30.
This year due to the Covid pandemic and social distancing, third place teams will run with the individual qualifiers in the first race of the day and the first and second place finishers will run in the second race then the times will be merged together for the final standings.
There are lots of changes to this years state finals as opposed to years past. Cars are not allowed on the infield so teams will either have to carry tents to the infield from the main parking lot or set up tents outside the track.
The biggest change is that spectators are not going to be allowed on the infield and will have to watch from the grandstand.
